Juultide (yool-taid)

Here returns a child with gold on her toe;
Open the West gate and let the Old Year go.
Here returns a child with gold on her shoe;
Open the South gate and let the New Year through.
Here returns a child with gold on her chin;
Open the East gate and let the New Year in.
Here returns a child with gold in her eye;
Open the North gate and let the Old Year by...

— trad., unnamed Juultide carol

Refers to each occasion of Jarl Juulnir defeating a Kindercatch Lord, and returning triumphantly with the children they stole.

Juultide is a holiday festival mainly celebrated on Valamon, but with cousins scattered about The Midlands, Æthermark and the Islands of Agåntyr. It celebrates the heroic story of Jarl Juulnir, thought to be the strongest Jarl of the historical Kalevan tribes save for their Allmother, Kaleva herself.

In it, his tribes experience an especially long and woebegotten winter, wherein eight Kindercatch Lords plague their townships by stealing their children away for their dark rituals. One by one, Juulnir dueled and defeated all eight of the great Elderfae and bound them into his servitude.

Mostly the enslaved kindercatch are commanded to take the form of eight huge, black moose, to pull the ski-mounted huts of the eight townships most affected by their marauding. And one week each year, called Juultide, they take the form of shadowy spirits, who sneak into the households of good children and gift them toys stolen from their orginal victims.

Historicity

There is some cause to believe the events are factual. For example, there are multiple reports of a nearly decade-long winter in the First Age, where Aios was thought to leave the sky to mourn the death of her beloved son Solonn, only to be awoken from her fugue by the music of Saint Ajora's flute, accompanied by a thousand birds. It is also known The Veil was weak during this "Decade of Darkness", making the depredations of firstfolk, demonic or chimeric interlopers all the more likely.

Juulnir fights a kindercatch Fae Lord.